Beastin’!

As a guy that is a supporter of the Buffalo Bills, this one is sort of tough to write. As a guy who repeatedly put stock into Marshawn Lynch in my fantasy football league and the minute I dropped him he finally became the star he was always capable of being, it flat out pisses me off!!! But this guy still isn’t getting the credit he deserves. People have noticed that he is a good running back, but the problem with that is he is better than good….he’s elite.

It could be because as I mentioned, his time with the Bills. Lynch was highly touted coming out of California in 2007. The Bills traded Willis McGahee and took Lynch with the 12th pick (2 picks before Darrelle Revis went to the Jets) and while his first 2 seasons were ok, they never really gave him the carries that he should have been getting. To me, if you draft a running back with the 12th pick in the draft and trade a good running back in the same offseason then perhaps you should look to have this guy carry you’re team.

In 2009 Fred Jackson burst onto the scene in Buffalo and it went all downhill from there. It was a pretty clear to most people that watched the Bills that for him to be effectived he needed to get a lot of touches. The more action he saw, the better he played. And really that is the story of a lot of recent faliures in the NFL at running back these days. They aren’t given a chance to get in a rythem because too many coaches now believe in having a 2 and even 3 back system.

In the 2010 draft the Bills showed off how competent they are as an organization by ignoring all their needs and taking C.J. Spiller with the 9th pick in the draft, adding him to an already full back field. That’s not to knock Spiller but even to this day it was a terrible pick. The writing was on the wall for Lynch entering the season, and he finally got what he needed which was a trade out of Buffalo.

Lynch is no saint. He has had his trouble off the field both when he was at Cal and with the Bills. So there is an aspect of this that involved him maturing. But none the less Pete Carroll figured out after having him around that he needed his carries, and we all remember the carry against the Saints in the 2010 playoffs that kick started his resurgence. He was unreal in 2011, going over 1,200 yards with 12 TD’s.

This season he has been even better. Don’t kid yourself, he has made things easy on Russell Wilson. He allows Wilson to run a lot of play action, he is a great blocking back, and a great reciever out of the back field. He has very possibly become the most complete back in the NFL. Sitting here I honestly can’t think of an aspect of his game that would be considered poor. Yesterday’s performance against the Redskins was simply dominant. That was a Redskins defense that was vastly improved in the 2nd half of the season and on the road Lynch tore them apart, putting an explanation point on things with his incredible 27 yard dash (helped out by Wilson of all people getting in the way just enough to allow Lynch to get in the endzone) that put the Seahawks ahead to stay.

It’s taken sometime, and it looked like he might be running out of chances, but now Marshawn Lynch is on the big stage and showing everyone that he has become one of the elite running backs in the NFL.